Virtual Desktop Infrastructure For Oil and Gas Training Center: Evaluation and Case Study

Abstract

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) technology is advancing rapidly. Organizations, including hospitals, banks, Oil and Gas companies, and universities have considered VDI as an alternative to the typical office workstation. Implementation of VDI technology has several attractive benefits such as simple management for desktops, reduction of operational cost, and better resource utilization. A study has been conducted in a specialized Oil and Gas training center located in a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country. The motivation behind the study was to evaluate VDI technology as an alternative to workstations when considering complexity of administration, improving end-user experience, and application performance. In this study, different types of GPU/CPU applications were evaluated to provide an indication of whether this technology is capable of replacing the conventional workstation environment in Oil and Gas companies. Throughout this paper the evaluation of VDI implementation in an Oil and Gas training center is presented along with the associated system design, benefits, and challenges.